I have always believed that The Torah is a reflection of reality.  From the beginning of our history as a People and at the time when Rabbis started trying to better understand and decipher its words, there have been two different ways of understanding its message.

Rabbi Akiva, for example, believed that every word, every letter, every space in The Torah serves a specific purpose and has a specific meaning.

Rabbi Ishmael, on the other hand, was the one who taught us that The Torah speaks the language of human beings. Truth be told, whichever our approach to understanding our sacred literature, one thing is certain — somehow we can always see our own reality reflected in its powerful words.
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I am very well aware that many people do not like sermons.  I understand that, and I believe that many times it is due to the fact that we come here to speak about difficult subjects. This afternoon, we will be speaking about something extremely difficult but hopefully we will do it in a rather beautiful way.

About six months ago, I discovered something that many of you discovered way before I did.  Even though I am known for having all the gadgets and I do mean ALL THE GADGETS (I am still in the market for one of the new iPOD NANOS), sometimes I am a late comer to social technology.  For months I kept getting messages to join Facebook.  

I ignored the messages because, after all, “Who has time to just sit in front of a computer and count how many friends you have on any given day?”

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Dear Friends,

During the Ten Days of Teshuva, the days from the beginning of Rosh Hashanna to Yom Kippur, I often find myself thinking about what has been and what I want my life to become in this brand New Year. I am sure that most of us approach these Ten Days with tremendous trepidation and that we all search within our soul to find a way to reach our full potential in life as we turn towards God.

This Yom Kippur, I would like to do something that I have never done before. (more…)

Parashat Ki Tetze can be quite overwhelming to study! Why? Well, it contains an incredible amount of Mitzvot. A simple reading of this Sidra will leave you puzzled at first. How do you connect some of the different commandments that it contains? Is there a logic in the way in which all of these different Mitzvot are laid out through out this week’s Torah Portion? Hardly!

Instead of trying to put the puzzle of Ki Tetze together, I would much rather bring your attention to Judaism as a whole. One of the most important and absolute truths (I don’t use this term often or lightly) about Judaism is that it is not merely a religion. Judaism is a way of life, and that is what makes us so different from all other different religions in the world. (more…)

Most of us know the story from The Tanach where Elijah strives to “understand” God’s presence and effect in the world. Elijah looks carefully at what happens around him to see where God is and what God is trying to say to him. Elijah looks at a fire consuming a bush but can’t find God in the fire. He listens to a great noise but can’t find God in the noise, and he feels a powerful wind but he can’t find God in the wind.

He finally finds God speaking to him in a “still small voice!” — just like the author of Unetaneh Tokef (one of the most powerful and beautiful prayers in our High Holy Day liturgy) wants us to visualize God’s power. Not in the midst of a great show of force, rather in the silence and the stillness of a small voice! Kol D’mama Daka! (more…)

When we first decided to come to Costa Rica on vacation, we did so for a number of reasons. We were told that we would be able to see the most amazing wildlife and breath-taking sights. We arrived here last week and everything has been exactly like we expected it to be. The monkeys swing out in full force every morning, and we can see them from our window, then we run into them again when we go to the beach later in the day. We have seen butterflies that seem to have been colored by the hand of God, the colors are not only vibrant but they are unlike any colors we have ever seen before! We were prepared for all of these, and we haven’t been disappointed.

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As many of you know, the past two years have been a time of incredible spiritual growth for me. I had always wanted to better understand the specific area in Halacha (Jewish Law) that deals with the writing of Gittin (a Jewish writ of divorce), which is so complicated that one needs absolute expertise to be able to understand it. (more…)

Parashat Korah is one of those key transitional places in The Torah. For many weeks, we have been reading about The Journey of The Children of Israel through the wilderness. We read about the glorious redemption from slavery in Egypt, about the power of God and the reluctant determination of Moses to lead the people.It is important to remember what a reluctant leader Moses always was. Our Sages have taught us that Moses was the most humble man ever to walk the earth; he didn’t want to be a leader but God and History had completely different plans for him. Moses was the one who considered himself an “Arel Sfatayim (someone with uncircumcised lips).” It took major convincing and arm twisting from God to send Moses on his way to help free our People from bondage. (more…)

This Shabbat we will once again read the story of The Twelve Spies that were sent by Moses to scout The Promised Land. There are a couple of things that we have to keep in mind as we prepare to re-acquaint ourselves with this Biblical Story. 

First, it is important to remember that God is the one who instructs Moses to send scouts to take a look at the land but perhaps the most important thing to remember is that Moses, just as instructed by God, appoints a representative from each one of the tribes. I have always found this story to be not only interesting but also very ironic. 

I am sure that many of you are familiar with the popular saying, “Wherever you have two Jews, you have three ideas!” So what exactly was Moses thinking, better still, did God really believe that 12 people were going to find a consensus as to what they thought the land looked like?  (more…)

This Shabbat, we will read Parashat Naso, which is the largest Torah portion in the entire Torah. We could certainly spend hours studying and understanding the numerous concepts that appear in this Parashah.  Among other things, Parashat Naso contains the explanation of The Ordeal of The Sotah, the explanation for the Vows of The Nazarites and The Priestly Blessing.  

Rather than talking about The Torah Portion for this week, I would like to share some of my thoughts on The Haftarah for Parashat Naso. The Haftarah for this Shabbat tells the story of the remarkable birth of one of our Biblical Heroes — Shimshon (Samson). The reason why we read this particular Haftarah on this Shabbat is due to the link between Shimshon being a Nazarite himself (having taken that vow) and the description of The Vow of The Nazarite contained in Parshat Naso.  (more…)